My prediction is that in two years time he will have solidified himself as a better than serviceable to very good starting QB, but I'm not banking on elite. He will look just fine with some more weapons on offense and a defense that is at least slightly better than average.

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Ken Stabler, Joe Montana and most recently Drew Brees had non-rocket arms and they all ended up winning a super bowl. Even if McCoy only ends up being as good as Chad Pennington, I am excited to have him because quality QBs are few and far between in this league.

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Anyway we have more pressing issues in terms of another playmaker at WR and someone to get to the QB.

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Colt is the guy. They may draft a back up for Colt and it will likely be in the 6th round I would say that they will keep an eye on tyrod taylor of Va Tech. he would be a very good late round QB to pick up that fits the system flawlessly and fits the type of QB that Holmgren loves a QB that is pass first he can run but he runs with his eyes down field. Also a smart guy who is supposed to have a good work ethic. the first 3 rounds will be dedicated to WR, DL, LB, and DB. All spots they need to find starting quality players.

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You have to suspect that they won't be drafting a QB at #6 under any cirucmstances. Picking that high, they simply need to select the best player available. McCoy may or may not be "the guy" for the future, but he's shown that he's "a guy" that can hold down the fort while the team is built around him. Right now, the team needs to be built to beat the Ravens and the Steelers, and that means physical players that can play in three yards and a cloud of dust; in other words, keep the offense on the field chewing clock and give us a good look at the other punters in the AFC North.

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Colt played against the Steelers twice, Baltimore, Jets, Patriots, Saints and Cincinnati
Name for me another Cleveland QB since the comeback that takes the team in a 2-min drill against the Jets to a tying TD. Then leads them to a winning drive in OT and one of his lame-a$$ receivers fumbles the ball.
Going into Camp as the #1 with all those reps will work wonders for him.
Colt showed me a lot. His end-of-season problems had more to do with the opponents and a defense that mailed it in, rather than the weather. He’ll be fine.

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Funny how Colt is reading the tea leaves about his weak arm,Now professing his innocence or I mean his injury ??? He's a marked man now,they have film on him and he will be what he is another Danny Waurfel.

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Should the front office accept Colt is the guy or look for someone better? My feeling is all teams should continue to look for better players at all positions all the time. Trouble is Cleveland has too many weak spots.

Regarding his pinched nerve, the National Championship game was the 2nd time. Many Texas insiders felt he hadn't fully recovered from the first one which happened on a QB sneak at the goal line. Does this make him injury prone? The answer either way is just opinion. All 3 QB's went down with an ankle injury, possibly they came from a team weakness instead of being injury prone.

Two names that keep coming up in regards to McCoy possibly being a franchise QB are Jeff Garcia and Drew Brees. I was a big fan of Garcia and think he will forever be underrated-I liked Brees coming out of Purdue and was surprised at his early struggles in SD but I'm not a fan of either comparison. I don't think McCoy has the velocity or mobility of Garcia or the arm strength of Brees out of Purdue. And Brees' athletic ability is underrated. Colt certainly beats a coming out of Purdue Brees in a race but one of the most memorable plays I remember from Brees in college was him standing flat-footed-eyes downfield and hurdling a would be sacker-completely clearing him-landing, resetting and completing a down field pass.

At times last season Colt reminded me of a minature rookie Roethlisberger with his ability to squirt out of danger and make something happen and take what the defense gave him and I think his ultimate success would come if he could consistently make plays downfield like this. But I'm skeptical he could consistently do this (make plays downfield) and stay healthy with his stature (staying healthy for much of his college career means nothing in pros) or become a franchise caliber guy from the pocket, again because of his stature and arm strength.

As far as a first round QB-It seems to me Shurmur would prefer his own guy to develop but then again Colt was taken by Pat's boss. The real question is whether Holmgren/Heckert are sold on him after figuring him to sit and learn longer. McNabb to Cleveland would be a shock to me because I still think McNabb is a top QB and could really help out a contending team rather than a rebuilding one so I still contend they will draft Cam Newton is he's available.

I read an article (no link, sorry) that Colt had nerve damage in his throwing shoulder from that hit in the BCS Championship game. He apparently played this season with lingering effects from the nerve damage and his shoulder was never 100% recovered. That might make up for a bit of strength. Plus he's now under one of the better strength and conditioning programs in the NFL so it can only get better.

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Let's get some activity going in the Cleveland sub-forum!

I think he's a solid starting QB but he's not going to win games by himself. Does that make him a franchise QB? depends on your definition. He certainly will be put in the best system for his style under Shurmur.

Obviously the jury's out on Colt, but I voted yes on this because he showed enough in his first 3 starts to give me the impression he will do well in the future. However, if I were judging by the games he played in after coming back from the injury, I'd be lukewarm on him as our starting QB. And what worries me a little is whether the colder weather bothered him enough that it affected his play. Stats may or may not support what I'm saying, but I thought Colt didn't look as sharp towards the end of the season. Just the impression I had.

On the positive side, what Homgren said in his early November press conference was spot on, when he said what he learned from Colt's first starts is that the games weren't too big for him. Mentally Colt gets it and is determined and has enough fire in his belly to get better to become a great QB. We'll see if his talent level bears that out, and if they can continue to improve the O-line, as well as keep Joe Thomas when his contract expires.

I have no doubt Colt's gonna be the man. Dude's a gamer. If he was 2" taller everybody would slurp him as the next big thing. Just gotta get him a RT and a #1 wr and this offense will be really tough to stop

Another thing that would help, is drafting Mark Ingram believe it or not. Would take alot of pressure off Colt having a backfield of Vickers blocking for Hillis and Ingram, with Hardesty as the backup. Hillis can't continue carrying the ball as many times as he did last season. Hardesty having had injuries to both knees makes me worry about his future in regards to dependability in staying healthy. I believe Ingram will be a great NFL RB. May not be as fast as some, but he'll gain alot of yards behind a good NFL line, that'll hopefully continue being improved.

I may be wrong about WR A.J. Green, but if I am he wont be available at #6. And Julio Jones doesn't have high first round talent from what I've seen.

Colt was a risk with our pick. He only slide out of late round 1 because of the nerve damage he suffered his senior year at Texas. He has a real shot at being a real solid QB as he appears to be fully healthy from his injury.
In Holmgren's style offense, Colt can have a career similar to Hasselbeck's at Seattle, is that good enough, I don't know, but it is going to be awhile before they think of replacing him and he is going to need weapons around him to have any real success.

Another thing that would help, is drafting Mark Ingram believe it or not. Would take alot of pressure off Colt having a backfield of Vickers blocking for Hillis and Ingram, with Hardesty as the backup. Hillis can't continue carrying the ball as many times as he did last season. Hardesty having had injuries to both knees makes me worry about his future in regards to dependability in staying healthy. I believe Ingram will be a great NFL RB. May not be as fast as some, but he'll gain alot of yards behind a good NFL line, that'll hopefully continue being improved.

I may be wrong about WR A.J. Green, but if I am he wont be available at #6. And Julio Jones doesn't have high first round talent from what I've seen.

I think there is a real shot that Green may be available at #6. The top end of this draft is superb and when a draft is this strong, WR's tend to slide. After all, without a franchise QB, they cannot be stars no matter how talented they are.

Just something I came across from July 2009. Almost spot on-sort of interesting.

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THE DIRTY ARMY: I love the articles that say Colt told the NFL to wait one more year for him so he could go back to Texas and try to win a BCS Title. That’s funny he hasn’t even won a Big 12 Title yes. And he’ll never be a starting NFL QB. Make the NFL wait? he’d be lucky to go round 3. He has a weak arm, he can’t make all the throws. He’s too short. College success does not equal NFL success. I’ll bet a year’s income (33K) that Bradford goes ahead of Colt, and Bradford, goes on to start in the NFL and be success. Colt can only hope to hold a clip board.

Colt suits a WCO which Holmgren wants in Cleveland. His arm strength isn't top end but in a WCO, accuracy is more important than arm strength, and McCoy is very accurate.
There is little doubt that McCoy fell on draft day because of injury concerns. As long as they don't raise their ugly head, he should do fine in our WCO.
I think he will be very successful on our team but he wouldn't suit every offense.

I'm still thinking now that it will be his feet rather than his arm strength that determines how successful he can be.

That article seemed kinda subjective to me. They are trying to put all the evidence of those bad games into the weather, and are completely discounting how good the Ravens and Steelers defense is. Especially for any rookie QB playing those two teams back to back.

I doubt had he played those two teams in a dome he'd have lit them up through the air. The Jets scored 9 points vs the same Ravens, and weather wasn't a factor at all for Mark Sanchez who isn't a rookie. Now the question is a fair one to ask, but I don't think you can try and correlate those two games on simply bad weather.

Even if it's cold, snowy, and windy, even the big armed QB's have to pick and choose their spots. I remember the 'tuck rule' game, and I can remember very little deep throws from either QB. Brady chipped away down the field all game with short, quick routes. That's what they are gonna expect Colt to do, it's not a big downfield, vertical offense.

He does need the arm strength to push the ball into tight windows though, accuracy is part of that equation too though.

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Originally Posted by Scott Wright

I guarantee that if someone picks Cam Newton in the Top 5 they will regret it.

There has been some serious band wagon jumping out of the media after Colt's pre season debut. I'm trying to think of the last unproven QB to have a sterling pre season and if it translated to the regular season-I'm coming up nada.

well you'd have to look at all the recent QBs and how they looked in the preseason before their breakout years. I'm sure there are some.

The key to McCoy will be if he's able to stretch the defense with throws downfield like he did a few times against the Packers. This offense requires a lot of short throws, but the ability to put some zip on those intermediate to downfield throws will determine if he's good enough to keep safeties out of the box and make big plays through the air consistently.

Only QB that comes to mind that had a strong pre season and was unproven was when Tony Romo emerged. I remember Bill had him play an entire game. He looked impressive then eventually earned the starting spot some time during in the season and looked just as impressive.

I remember very well in 2004 the Chargers drafted Philip Rivers b/c Drew Brees looked really lousy the season before as the starter, and in the 2004 preseason Drew Brees dominated and hasn't looked back since after enjoying a breakout season that year.

Well, McCoy looked weak against Cincy. WCO QB's must be accurate but arm can be very average. He wasn't accurate today, maybe it's because we have no WR's, just have to wait and see.
Of course, we could have had Sanchez throwing to Jones and a very respectable offense, but that's spilled milk.

He looked outstanding from the 2nd quarter until the first drive of the third quarter. He wasn't bad in the 1st quarter, but penalties killed our drives. He didnt' play well the rest of the second half, and Cincy's pressure got to him.

Forget Jones, he didn't do that good yesterday and Phil Taylor was beasting it. Not to mention we have Little and Marecic and another 1st round pick next year. If we had Sanchez we'd be no closer to a super bowl than we are now. He's a starting QB in the NFL but he's not above average. Besides, who would our center be if we had Sanchez? We'd have Thomas and a bunch of scrubs out there without Mack. Sanchez has had a fantastic OLine in New York and he's still not that great behind it.

He looked outstanding from the 2nd quarter until the first drive of the third quarter. He wasn't bad in the 1st quarter, but penalties killed our drives. He didnt' play well the rest of the second half, and Cincy's pressure got to him.

Forget Jones, he didn't do that good yesterday and Phil Taylor was beasting it. Not to mention we have Little and Marecic and another 1st round pick next year. If we had Sanchez we'd be no closer to a super bowl than we are now. He's a starting QB in the NFL but he's not above average. Besides, who would our center be if we had Sanchez? We'd have Thomas and a bunch of scrubs out there without Mack. Sanchez has had a fantastic OLine in New York and he's still not that great behind it.

How many OC's in the NFL came in round 1 and how many OC's taken later turned out to be stars, but oh well, that was Mangini?
H...mmm, we lost to Cincy with Dalton as their starter, so it will be a long, long season.
McCoy completed far less passes against Cincy's defense than a WCO QB should be doing and it only gets worse against Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
He should be showing improvement so I'm worried.

Colt had some good throws and some bad throws and overall I don't think he played as bad as it seemed but... I really didn't like his decision making. Too often it looked like things were happening too fast for him. One of the surest signatures of a QB lacking competency imo is checking it down for a loss. It happens too them all at one time or another but its still a sign a guy is overwhelmed. I haven't rechecked but it seemed like he hopelessly checked it down at least 3-4 times in that game.

So far it's not looking good for our boy. Excuses range from "he's not getting pass protection" to "he doesn't have any WRs to throw to" or "it's only 4 games." "We're 2-2." Coach Shurmur mentioned treating Colt like a rookie, which doesn't really make any sense since clearly he's not. What's worse is Colt endorsing that view and saying something like yeah I'm still a rookie because of the new system and shortened training camp, blah, blah, blah. Anything is possible as far as him turning the corner but at this point-yes, only week 6-it's not looking good.

What I have liked about him so far is that he's being very elusive in the pocket. The problem is though, this is not leading to enough big plays down field or drive extending plays-mostly, it seems to me, because of lack of accuracy (strange) and an unwillingness to force it to the WRs-but also, likely, lack of separation from the rec-but that's hard to tell.

Opening drives of the Titan game, when it was still a game, were not good for Colt.

1st possession its 3rd an 8-he gets good pass protection-forces a 5yd pass to a covered Watson-incomplete-ends drive.

2nd possession-great field position after forcing a deep punt. 3rd down-again good pass protection-throws behind Watson, who is beating Rudd to the corner of the end zone for a sure TD-incomplete-FG. (What's worse, the same throw later from Hasselback is perfectly lead to Cook, allowing him not to break stride and go for the TD. ouch.)